August 22, 2008

Remember those s'more bars? I'm sorry to report that they didn't turn out quite as well as I let on...

...but they ultimately became something better.
Yes, my friends, I'm sorry to say that you've been deceived. Hoodwinked. Bamboozled. Although those bars looked fabulous and tasted great initially, they were rock hard the next day. Not even the microwave could return them to an edible form. So, I did what any frustrated cook would do. I dumped 'em into a bag and beat the fire out of them with my rolling pin. The results of this momentary loss of calm were a glistening layer of sweat, a renewed sense of peace, and a bag full of buttery graham cracker-chocolate chunk clumps and crumbs.

Now what? Since I refused to waste the bag full of goodies, I began to look for recipes requiring graham cracker crumbs that wouldn't be fouled up by the presence of those globs of chocolate. (I picked the marshmallows out and ate them myself.)(This also helped with the recovery from the temporary tantrum.) I finally found an Oatmeal Breakfast Cake that I decided could be mangled to suit my needs.

Frankly, the cake couldn't have turned out any better. It smelled exactly like brownies, but had the texture and appearance of cake. It's too bad I couldn't preserve some for posterity because I'm sure I'll never be able to replicate it, and it truly was a delicious creation.

Because this is clearly an original recipe, forged out of frustration and desperation, I'm submitting it to Lore from Culinarty for her Original Recipes roundup.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a bundt pan with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, oats, demolished s'more bar base, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, cranberries, and chocolate chunks.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, and eggs. Add this buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 5 minutes, then extract it and leave it to cool completely on a wire rack.

(Good thing I got my slab early--this was all that remained after sitting out for less than an hour at work.)

58
comments:

Well Grace if we were in karate you would've received an updated belt!!! Looks like rolling pin anger does magic in your kitchen :D Your story fits perfectly with the Original Recipes concept. Thanks for sending it my way!

good save! i just hate it when a recipe turns out to suck, in one way or another. i feel cheated and ticked off and usually don't think to "repurpose" it (a big word in publishing, these days) like you did. this looks great!

Grace, leave it to you a smart Southern gal who can bang the heck out of stale cookies and turn it into something irresistable. So, I guess these means since I am working hard at cooking Southern that I too get to bang the heck out of something also?

It must be amazingly fun to be you. :o) I just wish you could have posted this recipe about 2 days ago!! Stephanie used your s'mores recipe to surprise me for my birthday, and then left the rest with my family. Had I known there was a use for the remains after the boys stuffed themselves to illness, I would have tried it in a heartbeat. But alas, I'm not nearly as clever as you.

I'm really jealous of all your co-workers too. Are there others that bring in goodies as often as you?

Sounds frustrating, lol, but you're better than me. When things go south in the kichen, I tend to lose my cool and start hulk smashing things, lol. Looks like you made a graceful recovery and it sounds like ti tasted great.

On the one hand, I'm not happy your original recipe didn't work out. On the other hand, I so am because this cake sounds so delicious, with such good ingredients in it! And yes, oatmeal and chocolate is such a good combo.

I am totally familiar with a "glistening layer of sweat" unfortunately. And I can picture you bashing that stuff to smithereens! It would have been perfect in one of those cheesecakes I made last weekend. Totally! Looks like you found the perfect home for your "s'more bars base." Smart woman.